November 23, 2016 at 4:27 p.m.
Emerging from ashes
Fisher is smoking again following July fire
Emerging from ashes
Smoke is a part of the meat business.
But when members of the Fisher family arrived at their Portland facility late on July 16, they encountered more of the mix of vapor and gases than they ever wanted to deal with. It was pouring from the rear of their building at 300 W. Walnut St. as firefighters fought to control the flames inside.
What remained when firefighters left the scene more than three hours later was a charred mess with damage estimated at more than $1 million.
“Obviously that’s a hard phone call to get,” said Mike Fisher, one of four brothers that makethe third generation running Fisher Packing. “But right away it was about, how do we get back up and running as quickly as possible. There was never any doubt what we would do.”
As of the second week of November, they’re doing it.
Less than four months after flames, smoke and water destroyed Fisher’s entire meat processing facility, the company began producing products at its new Redkey facility.
Following the fire, it was estimated that at least $1 million in equipment had been destroyed in addition to at least $100,000 in products. While Fisher was reluctant to zero in on the final total of losses, he said insurance companies have been good to work with in the ensuing months.
“It was a substantial loss for sure,” he said. “We lost the whole back end of processing.”
Even before the fire, the Fishers knew they were short on space. They would have to move things back and forth during the production process. Those issues, and goals to expand the business, had led them to consider building a new processing facility in Portland’s industrial park.
They had talked to local officials, including Portland Mayor Randy Geesaman, Jay County Development Corporation executive director Bill Bradley and Jay County Chamber of Commerce executive director Dean Sanders about possibilities.
“We … even had talked to a builder and gotten some floor plan layouts, but hadn’t pulled the trigger on it,” said Fisher. “And the fire kind of forced the issue on that.”
Since every day without product to sell represented lost opportunity, the Fishers started looking in earnest. They considered buildings in Muncie and Greenville, Ohio, that would have fit their needs — food-processing facilities have special requirements such as drains in the floors and water available everywhere for cleaning purposes — but preferred to Jay County.
But when members of the Fisher family arrived at their Portland facility late on July 16, they encountered more of the mix of vapor and gases than they ever wanted to deal with. It was pouring from the rear of their building at 300 W. Walnut St. as firefighters fought to control the flames inside.
What remained when firefighters left the scene more than three hours later was a charred mess with damage estimated at more than $1 million.
“Obviously that’s a hard phone call to get,” said Mike Fisher, one of four brothers that makethe third generation running Fisher Packing. “But right away it was about, how do we get back up and running as quickly as possible. There was never any doubt what we would do.”
As of the second week of November, they’re doing it.
Less than four months after flames, smoke and water destroyed Fisher’s entire meat processing facility, the company began producing products at its new Redkey facility.
Following the fire, it was estimated that at least $1 million in equipment had been destroyed in addition to at least $100,000 in products. While Fisher was reluctant to zero in on the final total of losses, he said insurance companies have been good to work with in the ensuing months.
“It was a substantial loss for sure,” he said. “We lost the whole back end of processing.”
Even before the fire, the Fishers knew they were short on space. They would have to move things back and forth during the production process. Those issues, and goals to expand the business, had led them to consider building a new processing facility in Portland’s industrial park.
They had talked to local officials, including Portland Mayor Randy Geesaman, Jay County Development Corporation executive director Bill Bradley and Jay County Chamber of Commerce executive director Dean Sanders about possibilities.
“We … even had talked to a builder and gotten some floor plan layouts, but hadn’t pulled the trigger on it,” said Fisher. “And the fire kind of forced the issue on that.”
Since every day without product to sell represented lost opportunity, the Fishers started looking in earnest. They considered buildings in Muncie and Greenville, Ohio, that would have fit their needs — food-processing facilities have special requirements such as drains in the floors and water available everywhere for cleaning purposes — but preferred to Jay County.
Then Geesaman let them know the former Bell Aquaculture processing facility on Indiana 67 on the southwest side of Redkey was coming up for sale. The Fishers attended the sheriff’s sale, at which Bell bought back its own building, and expressed their interest. It took some time to put financing and other details together, but by October the building was theirs.
On one hand, there was still a lot of work to be done.
The building had to be reconfigured to fit Fishers’ workflow. Electrical work had to be changed. Some plumbing needed to be added. And unfinished area was completed.
On the other hand, because the building was already a food processing facility, the work was minimal as compared to what it would have been elsewhere.
“We bought it in October and we were producing product four weeks later,” Fisher said of the 26,000-square-foot site.
He said the ability to move into the building in Redkey — it’s situated between the company’s Portland and Muncie stores — shaved about three months off the time it would have otherwise taken to reach full production capacity again.
Full capacity hasn’t been reached yet — that will likely come in February or March — but the Fishers are well on their way.
They’re currently processing a lot of deer, being in the middle of hunting season, while also focusing on holiday items like ham and turkey in the one smokehouse that is up and running. (They had three smokehouses in Portland.)
“It feels awesome to start making your own product again,” said Fisher. “It feels like you kind of lost a limb or something and you got it put back on and you’re just doing your old routine.
“Especially to be in a new environment that is more right-sized for what you needed, it just feels really refreshing and invigorating.”
They hope to have another smokehouse — twice the size of the one already in place — up and running by late December or early January and then gradually start producing the rest of their products. Those include hot dogs and bacon, the two items Fisher said he hears the most demand for, as well as lunch meats, bratwurst, smoked sausages and snack sticks.
And when processed meat production is fully operational in Redkey, the family will turn its attention back to the Portland site.
The exterior of the rear of the building — the front was left undamaged thanks to a firewall — has been rebuilt and work is continuing to on the interior. That area, about 5,000 square feet, will eventually be used to increase the company’s raw meat production for both its two retail outlets and for distribution to other retailers.
“That way we’ll be selling raw and finished,” said Fisher, who returned to the family business just two years ago after working for an aerospace company in Troy, Ohio. “Right now we distribute basically just smoked meats. But hopefully we’ll be distributing some fresh product as well.”
Fisher Packing is well known for its award-winning products, having just this year earned best in show for its turkey at the Indiana Meat Packers & Processors Association competition. It also earned grand champion awards in the categories for traditional bacon, BBQ products, ham, summer sausage, variety cured, exotic summer sausage and snack sticks.
The company distributes to stores like Marsh and Hill’s Market (Fort Wayne) and packages for Fair Oaks Farms and a handful of others, and one of the concerns following the fire was the ability to hold on to those accounts without being able to provide product for at least six months.
So far, so good, on that front.
“All of our customers have expressed very much interest in picking up our product when we got back up and running,” Fisher said. “Nobody said that they would have to move on. All those accounts are still there. That being said, they’re very anxious to get our product back, which is why we were so pleased to find this (facility).”
The Fishers — Mike handles the accounting/office part of the business while his brothers Greg (Muncie store), Brad (fresh meat production) and Daniel (processed meat production) each have their own specialties — hope the same is true of their local customers.
They were able to use reserves to keep products on the shelves in Muncie and Portland into late August, but since then they’ve been lacking. But with the Redkey facility beginning to produce, that will change in the coming months.
Though the destruction of the fire was not how they would have planned the latest expansion of the company that was started by Leon Fisher and then led by John and Janice Fisher until their retirement two years ago, it now looks as if everything is falling in to place.
“We feel really blessed for where we ended up,” said Mike Fisher. “You have to feel like it’s to some extent just fate or divine intervention that things just came the way they were. And now we’re potentially in a lot better position or launching pad than where we would have been.
“It’s a painful way to get there, but the place we ended up is really fortunate.”
On one hand, there was still a lot of work to be done.
The building had to be reconfigured to fit Fishers’ workflow. Electrical work had to be changed. Some plumbing needed to be added. And unfinished area was completed.
On the other hand, because the building was already a food processing facility, the work was minimal as compared to what it would have been elsewhere.
“We bought it in October and we were producing product four weeks later,” Fisher said of the 26,000-square-foot site.
He said the ability to move into the building in Redkey — it’s situated between the company’s Portland and Muncie stores — shaved about three months off the time it would have otherwise taken to reach full production capacity again.
Full capacity hasn’t been reached yet — that will likely come in February or March — but the Fishers are well on their way.
They’re currently processing a lot of deer, being in the middle of hunting season, while also focusing on holiday items like ham and turkey in the one smokehouse that is up and running. (They had three smokehouses in Portland.)
“It feels awesome to start making your own product again,” said Fisher. “It feels like you kind of lost a limb or something and you got it put back on and you’re just doing your old routine.
“Especially to be in a new environment that is more right-sized for what you needed, it just feels really refreshing and invigorating.”
They hope to have another smokehouse — twice the size of the one already in place — up and running by late December or early January and then gradually start producing the rest of their products. Those include hot dogs and bacon, the two items Fisher said he hears the most demand for, as well as lunch meats, bratwurst, smoked sausages and snack sticks.
And when processed meat production is fully operational in Redkey, the family will turn its attention back to the Portland site.
The exterior of the rear of the building — the front was left undamaged thanks to a firewall — has been rebuilt and work is continuing to on the interior. That area, about 5,000 square feet, will eventually be used to increase the company’s raw meat production for both its two retail outlets and for distribution to other retailers.
“That way we’ll be selling raw and finished,” said Fisher, who returned to the family business just two years ago after working for an aerospace company in Troy, Ohio. “Right now we distribute basically just smoked meats. But hopefully we’ll be distributing some fresh product as well.”
Fisher Packing is well known for its award-winning products, having just this year earned best in show for its turkey at the Indiana Meat Packers & Processors Association competition. It also earned grand champion awards in the categories for traditional bacon, BBQ products, ham, summer sausage, variety cured, exotic summer sausage and snack sticks.
The company distributes to stores like Marsh and Hill’s Market (Fort Wayne) and packages for Fair Oaks Farms and a handful of others, and one of the concerns following the fire was the ability to hold on to those accounts without being able to provide product for at least six months.
So far, so good, on that front.
“All of our customers have expressed very much interest in picking up our product when we got back up and running,” Fisher said. “Nobody said that they would have to move on. All those accounts are still there. That being said, they’re very anxious to get our product back, which is why we were so pleased to find this (facility).”
The Fishers — Mike handles the accounting/office part of the business while his brothers Greg (Muncie store), Brad (fresh meat production) and Daniel (processed meat production) each have their own specialties — hope the same is true of their local customers.
They were able to use reserves to keep products on the shelves in Muncie and Portland into late August, but since then they’ve been lacking. But with the Redkey facility beginning to produce, that will change in the coming months.
Though the destruction of the fire was not how they would have planned the latest expansion of the company that was started by Leon Fisher and then led by John and Janice Fisher until their retirement two years ago, it now looks as if everything is falling in to place.
“We feel really blessed for where we ended up,” said Mike Fisher. “You have to feel like it’s to some extent just fate or divine intervention that things just came the way they were. And now we’re potentially in a lot better position or launching pad than where we would have been.
“It’s a painful way to get there, but the place we ended up is really fortunate.”
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